Scams on the Internet have unfortunately become an everyday occurrence. They typically involve credit card scams and the shipping of merchandise. In some cases, merchandise is sent to unsuspecting people who have been hired to “trans-ship” goods bought fraudulently, for the purpose of masking the real destination address. In other cases the scam artists simply operate out of their facilities, obtaining credit card information, which is then used to make fraudulent purchases. One common thread throughout these scams is that the shipping address is often used in a series of scams until the scam artist moves on. Therefore, receiving an early warning about certain shipping addresses would allow merchants to reduce their exposure. Unfortunately, some merchants are often not aware of problems with specific addresses, even though some other merchants may be aware of them, and credit card companies do not always share such information openly with merchants and other e-trade participants.